The Stand
 

For those of you who've read "The Stand" what are your thoughts?

I just finished reading it a few days ago. The last few Summers I decided to read a classic:

2005: Atlas Shrugged
2006: Les Miserables
2007: The Stand....although I know a lot of people wouldn't recognize it as a classic, I figured what the heck.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. King's post-apocalyptic vision is intriguing...but when all was said and done after reading 1,141 pages..it just felt like something was still missing...if that's possible.

Just in case it's not a "classic",,,I'm now reading "To Kill A Mockingbird". I haven't read it since the 11th grade.

I agree. I like Stephen King - I find his novels very imaginative - but something about The Stand just felt unresolved at the end. The reader has to wade through hundreds of pages of semi-repetitive plot to reach some sort of climax. . . . but I spent the last few pages trying to figure out what had actually happened. The explanation dried up.

King's vision of the apocalypse is creepy and fascinating - reminds me of those church lessons that used to encourage food storage to sustain life as civilization crumbled (now, we're supposed to store food in case of job loss, illness, natural disaster, etc.). Too bad he's come back to this imagery in both his Dark Tower series and in 2006's Cell. I guess one can only have so many ideas.

In general, I like the first 80% of King's books, and then grow a little bored and disappointed towards the end. One exception: Bag of Bones (pretty recent) which has some really interesting character development.

It was about 10 years ago when I read it, so I don't recall exactly what I thought other than I was surprised to hear him say in an interview that he based it on the book of Revelations. If true, he has a rather creative interpretation of the book.

Also, avoid the movie.

When you are ready to have that lose end tied up, read all seven books of the dark tower series. I just finished the last. Flag and many characters from other books appear in the series.